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'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
21–30 of 34 posts
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> so they are much more intelligent than I think they were Pardon me, but we are talking about homo sapiens here? Those people would be not different then you and me. If you would raise one of their child's today it would just blend in. They were/are the same species then you and me... I just want to say please don't ride that all cavemen were stupid apes train. That boot sailed a long time ago regarding to modern sc…
Yes, but they didn't have art schools, museums, supplies and they didn't doodle in boring classes or meetings. They didn't have an "art tradition" - or at least not in the way we do now - they had invented it themselves. If Rembrandt, Raphael or Warhol were born back then they wouldn't have had the cultural milieu to create the same things.
Funny anecdote, that when Picasso visited these places in southern France, he said: we have learned nothing.
Or something similar. Compare it with his style when he got older. It's related.
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> so they are much more intelligent than I think they were Pardon me, but we are talking about homo sapiens here? Those people would be not different then you and me. If you would raise one of their child's today it would just blend in. They were/are the same species then you and me... I just want to say please don't ride that all cavemen were stupid apes train. That boot sailed a long time ago regarding to modern sc…
ow that's awesome I didn't know that. Sorry but my perspective of them are from movies and cartoons and they always make they look very dumb
I wont blame you, but if you are interested, then have a look at recent documentaries about the topic. The German/French TV station "Arte" sometimes has the content in english too and other European languages.... They cover neolithic and bronze age quiet regular because we have many of these and other sites...
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#24What's really amazing is that they still don't know the "why" other than some interesting speculation: religious purposes, places for psychadelic trips, "the creation of surpluses in some kind of hierarchy." Coincidentally, last week the local public television station was replaying a very old program of Bill Moyers interviewing Joseph Campbell, who died in the late 80s and was known for studies of mythology. He had…
Joseph Campbell is not regarded within anthropology and paleontology as a serious scholar. He is a purely pop-sci phenomenon, boosted by his association with Star Wars and friendship with Bill Moyers. Maybe not exactly a crackpot Graham Hancock kind of figure, but more comparable to that instead of anyone authoritative.
He is still an authority for many people, though, and not without reason. Just not within academia.
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#25If you are interested in seeing original cave paintings, not reproductions, I recommend Pech Merle near Cahors, France.
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#26Amazing that some of those paintings have a very good quality. They really trained for a long time before making some of those drawings, so they are much more intelligent than I think they were
> so they are much more intelligent than I think they were Pardon me, but we are talking about homo sapiens here? Those people would be not different then you and me. If you would raise one of their child's today it would just blend in. They were/are the same species then you and me... I just want to say please don't ride that all cavemen were stupid apes train. That boot sailed a long time ago regarding to modern sc…
> Those people would be not different then you and me.
We know that good nutrition during childhood has a significant impact on IQ, as does avoiding parasite infections. Those ancients were the same species as us, but it is also known that that they likely suffered from food precarity at times and endemic infections, so the belief they had their shit less together than many modern populations is reasonable.
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#27I feel the same sort of floating disconnected-ness when I am out back in the desert of Western Australia, and come across a rock shelter with paintings and obvious signs of working by human hands. Its just such a humbling thing, to look at a piece of art that is 10's of thousands of years old, and realize that a human was once there, making it, just so that some day, a human would be there, looking at it. What it wou…
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Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#28Stunning, and amazing to consider that these were painted by firelight/flaming torch. If you've not watched the Herzog classic "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" - I highly highly recommend it - the paintings are amazing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Forgotten_Dreams I was recently remembering my son's obsession with trains, buses and dustbin lorries when he was 2 to 5 - a friend tried to explain it as akin the the…
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Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
ow that's awesome I didn't know that. Sorry but my perspective of them are from movies and cartoons and they always make they look very dumb
I wont blame you, but if you are interested, then have a look at recent documentaries about the topic. The German/French TV station "Arte" sometimes has the content in english too and other European languages.... They cover neolithic and bronze age quiet regular because we have many of these and other sites...
I found this gem on Arte a while back: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118245-000-A/sulawesi-am-anfan...
Translated from German:
> For a long time, scientists assumed that the first artworks in human history originated in Europe around 40,000 years ago. Recently, however, cave paintings discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have challenged this assumption. Thanks to a new dating method, it has been revealed: one of the rock paintings is at least 67,800 years old.
The documentary is available in German and French only. Subtitles are available only in the aforementioned languages too. I used AI to make high-quality English subtitles from the official ones.
Re: 'They take you out of life, out of time': a journey into Spain's cave paintings
#30What's really amazing is that they still don't know the "why" other than some interesting speculation: religious purposes, places for psychadelic trips, "the creation of surpluses in some kind of hierarchy." Coincidentally, last week the local public television station was replaying a very old program of Bill Moyers interviewing Joseph Campbell, who died in the late 80s and was known for studies of mythology. He had…
Joseph Campbell is not regarded within anthropology and paleontology as a serious scholar. He is a purely pop-sci phenomenon, boosted by his association with Star Wars and friendship with Bill Moyers. Maybe not exactly a crackpot Graham Hancock kind of figure, but more comparable to that instead of anyone authoritative.
That's for the best, but I usually hear him quoted in the context of storytelling. His popularity definitely makes him relevant there, but I think he also started with real insight about hero-quest stories.
Beowulf and Episode IV – A New Hope may not have much direct bearing on any given person's pubescent path, aside from media consumption, but within it: much.